David A. Jaffe

David Aaron Jaffe (born April 29, 1955) is an American composer who has written over ninety works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, and electronics. He is best known for his use of technology as an electronic-music or computer-music composer in works such as Silicon Valley Breakdown, though his non-electronic music has also been widely performed. He is also known for his development of computer music algorithmic innovations, such as the physical modeling of plucked and bowed strings, as well as for his development of music software such as the NeXT Music Kit and the Universal Audio UAD-2/Apollo.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Jaffe grew up in a musical family, with his father a gifted mandolinist. He began studying violin at an early age with violin pedagogue Samuel Applebaum. He studied guitar and oboe, and taught himself 5-string banjo, mandolin, electric bass and cello. He played in folk, rock and jazz bands and began composing in high school, including works for string quartet and symphonic band.

From 1973 to 1975, he toured with the eclectic bluegrass band Bottle Hill, often arranging and composing for the group, incorporating elements of jazz and contemporary music. He also recorded and toured with such innovative bluegrass musicians such as Tony Trischka and Stacy Philips.

He attended Ithaca College, where he studied composition with Karel Husa; then Bennington College, where he studied composition, orchestration and counterpoint with Henry Brant and electronic music with Joel Chadabe, receiving a B.A. in music and math in 1978. (Other composition teachers from that time period included Vivian Fine and Marta Ptaszynska. He also studied violin with Jacob and Lilo Glick.)

He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University in 1983, where he was part of the computer music group at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, then later CCRMA (the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics). He worked with faculty and colleagues John Chowning, Leland C. Smith, Julius O. Smith and others. In addition to his musical work, he did pioneering research in physical modeling, ensemble timing and other aspects of computer music.

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